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A new government study says Muslim terrorists are widely misunderstood and don’t wish to impose Islam around world as is commonly believed in the west, they simply murder innocent people to defend against foreign attacks by enemies of Islam.

(How Islamist Extremists Quote the Qur’an) portraying Muslim terrorists as misunderstood by westerners. It spans 14 pages, but here is the gist of it; based on how they quote religious texts (Quran), Islamic extremists are not “an aggressive offensive foe seeking domination and conquest of unbelievers, as is commonly assumed. Instead they deal with themes of victimization, dishonor and retribution.” The report continues:

“The verses frequently utilized by extremists” address subjects such as “enduring hardships and the importance of fighting against the unjust unbelievers who oppress men, women and children.”

The debate begins: Are muslim terrorists engaging in terrorism with the goal of taking over the world for their prophet and God? Or are they just trying to kill as many non-muslims as they can to please their prophet and God?

It's not like one is worse than the other. Either motive is still terrorism, but if a group's aim is to take over a powerful nation by force, terrorism alone will not be a successful tactic to reach that goal. Terror techniques are best used to defend one's country from an invader or occupier with a superior military force (like the Revolutionary forces used against British troops or how the North Vietnamese fought the US), or to do a lot of damage and cause economic and social chaos (like the goals of the 9-11 attacks).

Unlike Fla Gator, I actually can kind of understand this type of hatred. It's not so different from gang violence-it starts with an "us against the world" mentality that is common with cults and gangs, and it escalates to violence. It involves finding a target to blame for all of the perceived injustices that the group has suffered, then making that target group suffer.

Even with individual criminals-think of the people I work with, who abuse children, it's also a matter of blaming someone else for one's problems. "It's that damned kid, not me, who's screwing up my life" is really not that far of a cry from "those Americans helped those Jews screw us out of our nation" when it comes to justifying the abuse of that kid or the destruction of those Americans and Jews.